Dartford FC joint-boss Adam Flanagan wants some players to show more hunger

The hunger and desire of some Dartford players has been questioned at the most critical stage of the season.

Darts are potentially four games from the play-offs in National League South and they need all hands on deck to get them over the line.

But joint-managers Jamie Coyle and Adam Flanagan were scratching around for a team at Weston-super-Mare last weekend because of injuries and unavailability.

Dartford joint-manager Adam Flanagan Picture: Andy Jones

Flanagan said: “My view on this stage of the season is that players should be hungry to play in these games.

“People should be knocking down your door but we’ve got players who, for one reason or the other, it’s going the other way a little bit.

“We’ve got players that are coming out of training, saying they don’t feel they can play. That’s obviously disappointing but we’re evaluating them and we hope we’ve not lost all of them for the season.

“We’ve gone from having two players potentially missing from the matchday squad to having two under-18s on the bench in the space of just over a week.”

Flanagan doesn’t expect Phil Roberts to feature again this season while four other players are struggling.

He said: “Charlie Sheringham might be able to play some part in a couple of those games but I don’t think he’ll be able to play all.

“Ronnie Vint needs a couple of weeks’ rest and he’s going to have a scan. He’s been playing with an injury behind his knee.

“He got a knock when we played St Albans at home and he’s played and played with it but it’s started to annoy and frustrate him.

“We gave him a week’s rest leading up to the (Weston) game and then it was worse.

“We named him as a sub because we thought if required we’d put him on, if not we’d give him another day but during the warm-up he came out, did a couple of runs and declared he couldn’t be on the bench because he didn’t feel he could feature.

“Billy Crook’s got a knock on his ankle. He got substituted when we played Truro at home, came off, was fine, but the following day his ankle swelled up.

“He might train this week but with thigh injury and his ankle injury, we’re hardly going to see any of him unfortunately.

“Mark Onyemah has fluid on his knee. It’s not causing him any pain but there is fluid there. Again, he might start training next week.

“We’re very much bare bones. We’re seeing if we can get Joe Healy in for the last four games and if he agrees to that, it would be a good addition.”